


Growing

by Anonymous



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies)
Genre: Gen, Growing Up Again, Repressed Memories
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-09-15
Updated: 2014-09-14
Packaged: 2018-02-17 11:23:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2307872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Groot is growing up one more time, and memories are slow to return. In other words, he spends his first few days terrified Rocket will dig out his roots and eat him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Growing

Groot didn’t understand what was going on. Dimly around him he could hear the sounds of big feet stomping and animals chattering, but it was distant and for some reason he couldn’t feel it in his roots. He cautiously wiggled his roots, looking for his parent. The one who fertilized and popped out his seed into the earth should be around somewhere close, along with the other saplings he knew. Normally he slept with his roots curled around theirs to make sure none of the animals of the forest uprooted him to eat him. He was small and tender his parent liked to tell him.

Sometimes he would see the creatures of the forest prowling along the edge of the parent trees. He and the other saplings would gather in the middle as the adults wove a protective barrier from vines and wood. But there were no saplings, no parent. 

His roots hit walls where there should be endless miles of earth. His leaves trembled slightly at the sensation of clay. He couldn’t eat clay.

Silence descended around him, before the animals chatter grew. He kept himself still. If he was lucky, they would think him as a simple sapling of a regular tree. He was cut off from everyone he knew. If he was uprooted now, he had nothing to defend himself with, nothing to keep himself from being eaten. 

Somehow, the thought of being eaten didn’t seem quite right. Something hummed deep in the back of his mind telling him he had nothing to fear. But it swiftly vanished underneath a crashing, overwhelming _tiredness_. The clay walls cut off his roots, and the soil wasn’t very moist. There were big creatures prowling around, and maybe if he slept his Parent would come to find him. 

Groot slept. He slept for what he was certain was a long time.

A vision of falling flashed in his mind, filled with overwhelming pain. Groot trembled at the vision- falling and falling, he couldn’t survive this. There was fire nearby too, slowly licking its way to him and he could feel instinctual fear rising. But he had to- he had too-

The ground rushed towards him and there was the memory of _pain_ before Groot shot awake. Small eyes flew open. He automatically flinched, a tiny, rustling movement. His body was little more than a broken off twig, and not very flexible. But why a twig? He remembered… being bigger, didn’t he? The dream he had, he was bigger. Big enough for- for- Groot sighed in discontent. 

Nothing was moving around him, so perhaps the bigger animals had left. Groot focused for a moment, letting the outside world fill him. He didn’t have ‘eyes’ like an adult, but his bark was extremely sensitive and could sense beyond his small pot. Not far, but hopefully-

There was a monster curled up around him. Groot froze as the wide expanse of an animal shifted nearby. It was sleeping right now, thankfully. Groot hummed softly in worry. The animal- why was it so close? The adults didn’t let anyone get so close to the saplings… right? Distant, distant, faint memories stirred. Groot couldn’t catch them in his root trail, to let them bud and open. They escaped him like fallen leaves instead, blown away by the wind. 

He had the feeling this wasn’t the first time a large creature had gotten so close to him when he was so small.

One small twig wiggled. Groot flexed the green wood, before giving up with a sigh. Tiny, too tiny. He was too small. For now he should focus on growing. The creature curled around him hopefully wouldn’t uproot him now. Not while his roots were so small. 

So he slept. And grew. Grew, and slept. He was certain he was going faster then what was normal, body attempting to make up for lost time.

 _Regenerating_. The word drifted across the back of his mind. He wasn’t growing, but regenerating. Why was he regenerating? He couldn’t remember- and the terrifying dreams of breaking and burning wasn’t helping. But if he had burned, then he wouldn’t be here, and he wasn’t splinters. 

The large animal was almost always close by, making noise in its own language. Groot listened, but couldn’t understand. The language drifted over his bark like rain. Groot listened to it, wondering where the root songs could be. He missed the adults that would twine the saplings roots in theirs and sing them knowledge.

Grow. Grow. Grow.

There was only silence in the small world his roots were placed in. There was plenty of nutrients, though it was a little hard to digest, and more than enough water. It was the silence that he hated the most. He missed the fellow saplings, missed the root songs, missed reaching out to be able to _talk_. It was so lonely.

Then came a song- not a root song- but a song nonetheless. It thrummed through him in a different way then a root song. Where root songs worked their way up and out, this song worked its way _in_. And it was very different in terms of beat- Root songs were always so slow compared to the upbeat catchy tune that was this new song.

These new beings couldn’t be so horrible with such a nice song. Faster growing now, to better appreciate this outside song.

\-----

Peter grinned in triumph as he leaned against the table. In the center of the table, the small twig swayed to the beat of the song. Thick vines were slowly- well, pretty fast actually- twining around the twig. Little off sprouts of bark were thickening the once tiny twig into something a little more supple. Leaves sprouted like a crown on top of his head. 

It had only been a week, but Peter could spy a slow flattening of the face. Not quite to the point where Groot could open his eyes, but soon. In another week or so, Groot should be at least able to smile at them. He would like that.

“Shut up Quill.” Rocket snarled, nose deep in a bomb. Awesome Mix #2 played in the background. 

“I didn’t say anything,” Peter protested, unable to knock the smile off his face.

“You’re thinking it too loudly.” Rocket settled the tool he was holding to one side. Bloodshot eyes glared at him. “Fine. You were right. The music is helping. Now go _away_.” 

Peter hummed noncommittally. Rocket was running himself ragged watching the small plant. Rocket was already sensitive enough to light, so sleeping beneath growth lights rigged up on the table had to be wrecking havoc with his system. Add in the fact that Rocket couldn’t be pried more then five feet from the plant and woke up every four hours to make sure that Groot was still fine…

Well, not that he could say anything. After all was said and done, Peter found himself waking up at random hours of the night to drift to the main area to check on little baby Groot. Drax and Gamora had done the same, probably. When he woke up to find their bunks empty in the dead of night, he assumed that that was where they were. 

Peter turned back to Groot, voice dropping to a low whisper, “You know Groot, if you could hurry it up that would be great. Rocket hasn’t been sleeping very well. I’m afraid he’s going to blow us all up. You wouldn’t like that again would you?”

Rocket snarled. Peter ignored the warning noise. He wasn’t stupid, but Rocket wasn’t very threatening when he was so exhausted that he couldn’t aim straight. Though if Rocket did start for his gun, Peter was grabbing Groot and running for safety.

“Quill, don’t fill Groot’s head full of nonsense. I’m resting just _fine_.”

Quill continued on, ignoring the patently false lie, “I’m sure you’d love to get out of that pot too. So hurry it up, okay? We’re all waiting for you.”

The tree leaves stilled, and the vines twisting and making up Groot’s body began to creep further up his body. Or was Groot napping? It was hard to tell- Groot was growing a lot faster then most plants, but it wasn’t like when he was an adult and was in a fight. Which made sense, in a way. It took longer when there was more to grow, but it was still so _slow_.

Rocket scooted closer to the pot, and placed his front paws on the soft soil. It was plenty moist according to Peter’s eyesight, but Rocket was obviously displeased. He jumped off the table and immediately went towards the sink.

Peter went back to staring at Groot. 

\----------

Groot remembered. 

Groot remembered the small creatures. The small animals. The ones that the adults looked down upon and ignored. The ones that the adults and other saplings weren’t nice too. Groot watched them as they wandered through the forest. 

But why did he think of them with such sadness? 

Groot watched the other creature, the one he had originally been scared stiff of. It was larger then the… Maintenance Animals. Larger and feistier. Where they had scuttled through the trees and forest, scared, it slumped against the table, loud and undeniably there. 

It’s tail would flicker in and out of the range of his tiny hands, occasionally brushing against bark. It was a good feeling- not at all nasty like the adults said it would be. The adults didn’t like animals. Groot did. He liked the way this particular creature slept close enough to hear its breathing, and how it would lean forward enough to press claws lightly against his soil to see if it was wet enough. 

Groot watched the tail flicker in and out of reach slowly. The creature was focused on what it was making with quick and clever paws. The tail brushed against his leaves, eliciting a tiny, silent giggle. He hadn’t moved in front of any of these strange creatures- but they didn’t seem to want to harm him. They couldn’t understand him, but he couldn’t understand them either. But they didn’t uproot him, the kept him fed and watered, so surely they were safe.

Groot’s root of thought trailed off as the tail rested against his small globe of dirt. He cast a quick glance around- there wasn’t anyone else around. It was him and the animal. Cautiously he reached out with tiny sapling fingers to press his hands against the tail.

The animal whipped around so fast Groot unbalanced and felt himself toppling backwards. Tiny branches fluttered uselessly. Claws pressed against his roots as the world was set to rights in a second but he remained still. Don’t touch the tail. Yep, message gotten loud and clear. Dark eyes moved closer and gentle paws tapped against his bark. He remained still, even though he could hear words. But they didn’t understand each other, and Groot was certain that wasn’t a good response.

The creature waited for a long time, surprisingly still. Slowly Groot felt his leaf buds unfurling from the futile attempt at protection of before. It wasn’t until all his leaves were unfurled that the being sighed. It wasn’t a very nice sound, and Groot wanted to reach out and tell him everything would be okay. But old memories were hard to override, and so were the songs of creatures digging up tender saplings to eat their roots. Even if something sang in his heart about this particular one, reassuring him that it wouldn’t harm him, he still felt the overwhelming instinct to hold still. The creature sat back down in it’s original spot, scrubbing at it’s eyes. 

Groot watched, the adrenaline and fear wearing off to weariness.

_There was blood. Groot knew it as blood. He didn’t bleed, but the small creatures, his **friends** did. There was blood and it wasn’t moving. Was it- no, it couldn’t be. He tried to move, tried to walk towards the small body curled up and bleeding but his roots were too deep and he couldn’t. no, he had too. He had too get there- _

_He took a step forward. The ground gave away, and he was once again in the giant metal room. He was curled around his friends protectively, and the creature (Rocket, his name is Rocket) was reaching for him, telling him too-_

_Fire, splintering and then- **darkness**._

Groot woke up shrieking. Roots scrambled for something- _anything_ \- to grab onto and keep him steady. There were no roots, no creatures, and no song. He was all alone. Leaves drooped miserably as he twisted in his pot, looking for something living. The creatures of this odd place would often be nearby, but he couldn’t see any of them right now.

He wanted… he wanted Rocket. He wanted someone to hold onto and remember that he was alive. That he was growing. Groot leaned against the clay walls and stared down a metal- what was it called? A… A metal hallway. His eyes searched hopefully for anything familiar.

Rocket appeared in the hallway rubbing his eyes and- talking? Snarling?- at the tall one beside him. Groot hummed deep in his roots, wanting and _needing_ Rocket to come closer. Closer to him, close enough to sink bark into fur and remind himself that both he and the small ones were alive and well. Something to chase away the nightmares. 

But he wouldn’t hear the root call. His feet weren’t connected to the earth. To call to him, he would need to speak the way they did- forcing air out of him. His wood and vines couldn’t form the same sounds as them- but wouldn’t even a noise be enough?

“Groo-“ He called out forlornly, hoping that Rocket would hear him.

Rocket’s ears pitched upwards, and dark eyes immediately fastened on him. Groot perked up hopefully. A tiny branch waved, and he crooned the only sound he could make once again. “Grooo!”

In an explosion of speed, Rocket was no longer at the other’s side, but twining around Groot’s small dirt globe and pressing his nose insistently against the bark. Groot chirruped happily- Rocket wasn’t going to eat him! Groot sank tiny little fingers into Rocket’s fur, and was rewarded with a low vibration beneath his fingers.

The taller one started to say something, only to get chased off when Rocket pointed a big object at him. Groot yawned, vines anchored in the fur of Rocket’s back. He still couldn’t remember much, but somehow, with this warm support, he didn’t think he was going to have any nightmares tonight.


End file.
